Recent content by JBCrowson

I don't think it should be an issue for most readers. In the RW most of us have several names we go by - what our parents named us at birth, a name we use day-to-day, the name our significant other calls us. The on-line era has added a string of avatar names to the list (assuming we're not...

"The best way to get good at writing is to review the crap out of other ppls stuff." "I know you always say that, but I disagree. I say: Read a lot, and write as much as you can." I don't think these two ideas are mutually self exclusive. You can't review without reading first, and I find...

Reminds me of the story about a young independent MP who attended the House of Commons (UK) for the first time. He sat on the back benches beside a long serving MP and announced that he was going to put a sign above his head saying "to let". "Unfurnished, presumably" was the reply.

I find it interesting to look at the words that are considered swear words, and how they change. Most of the 'traditional' English ones refer to words for genitals, words for sexual acts, or words for illegitimate children. I believe we have Victorian England to thank for the first two as there...

Welcome Pudge, I love the sounds of your outline. I have dabbled in D&D with my sons, and recognise its influence in what you've shared. I look forward to seeing how you execute it.

I find that I need to know a lot more about my world than should ever be put on the page, and so have a lot of world building notes of thousands of years of history, over 8 continents. I find in TRW so many common expressions, nursery rhymes, have their basis in historical fact. When I'm...

Welcome Lila, look forward to hearing about your worlds in due course. I love world building too, and have learned (through many trials and much error) that curbing the desire to cram as much of your world building as possible into your story writing actually improves the end result.

Hi Hjgranhof, I get why people like to have someone / a few folk to touch base with around their writing progress. The actual nitty gritty of getting words onto the page is such an isolating activity, that coming up for air, socially is important. If you are still looking for folk, I am open to...

Welcome. I'm curious - how much alcohol did it take to make the shoe drunk?

I like that one too. I have a few scars to attest to the fact that getting said cat into the bag in the first place is hard enough. Fatal wounds await any foolish enough to trying to re-capture it once it has tasted freedom.

Look at how the Deck of Dragons works in Steven Erikson's Malazan books. The cards can be just a deck of cards to play a game (whose rules are never explained) but those with divination ability can use a deck to form predictions though they are mostly imprecise. One army unit plays the card game...

Thanks, I think yours is a valid perspective too. As the father of a son with an intellectual disability, I have real struggles with the potential for my son to be more able and independent through AI, and these ethical issues that are currently inseparable from it.

I had something of an epiphany with my wip thanks to 3 beta readers on scribophile and a comment on here somewhere about writing tricky scenes from the POV of each person in it to see how it alters the scene's impact. It means a major reconstruction with a shift in balance of plot / world...

For me, until the question of property theft is addressed, the value, quality or ethics of creating with it are hypothetical, as I ain't gonna touch it.

Welcome Rosch / Roach, look forward to hearing about your dark fantasy.